I've been a software development manager for a long time and I've hired a lot of people. Fundamental development skills are essential. This includes knowledge of data structures, algorithms, C/C++ and another 'major' language (c/C++ is a must have), a basic understanding of micro processor archithecture (this means some ability to debug in assembly, at least a little), good written and verbal communication skills (e.g. can you write a decent bug report?, can you lead a decent code walkthrough?). Funcatinal knowledge of operating system fundamentals such as memory management, scheduling, I/O (Syncronous, async), and networked I/O (TCP/IP) are also important. Again, I don't expect folks to be able to write a kernel, but they do need to at least be able to use more than one thread to do I/O or handle UI while doing something else, or open a socket and do a little client/server work. Note that economics isn' bad, but it should be micro, not macro. Even entry level devs need to have some inkling of business trade offs.
Would you please develop some art work for me? Of course, i can't pay you very much. But! It would really help me out and my project is so cool that it will give you exposure to people that may just be willing to pay you more than me. Oh yea, I'll be sure to be dilligent about promoting you at least as much as I'm promoting my own spiffy project (for which I need your help). So, will you spend some of your time to help me?
Both are generaly accpted as correct. The use of "dead" is more modern and a natural simplification of the term. However, the use of the term 'ded' is common in navigation texts such as Bowditch's American Practical Navigator (quoted in Straight Dope's article).
E.g. neither is more correct than the other though I general find that people who are versed in the art of navigation often use the term 'ded'.
Also note the assertion by the Straight Dop questionier that "dead reckoning refers to a primitive form of aircraft navigation' is quite wrong. Ded or dead reckoning isn't primitive at all but a highly refined skill of marine piloting - anyone who navigates coastal water and can't handle basic ded reckoning is an idiot. I'm not a pilot so I can't comment on the techniques use for navigating aircraft. Though I would suspect that an accomplished pilot should be able to use charts and a compas to figure out how to get home if his instruments fail.
I have a Garmin GPS Map 76S. I've used it to navigate cross from Biscayne Bay FL to Bimini Bahamas and surrounds. A GPS with WAAS is dead nuts accurate. I took marks on my way out and navigated my way back too them on the way back. In every instance, the 76S was spot on. All my marks were verifiable by simple ded reckoning.
I've also used in the colorado mountains and in Puget Sound. Accurate in all cases. By accurate I mean that all marks and the electronic maps matched up with paper maps using simple ded reckoning or orienteering techniques.
Other notes:
The 76S will run about 8 hours reliable on a set of AA batteries - be sure to keep one new set of batteries in reserve for emergencies. It will run only 4 to 6 hours on rechargable batteries.
The unit does float:)
The on-screen mapping function is usefull, but you must scroll frequently. Be sure to take paper charts/maps with you.
The UI is easy and relativly intuitive to use. I found no mamor problems.
The tide table feature is really usefull! It always matched the navigation softare I use on my laptop.
The unit works well with the various laptop based navigation and mapping software I've used including The Captain and Microsoft Mappoint.
The Garmin downloadable maps work well and are worth the cost, but don't expect a lot of detail for the Marine (Blue Chart) maps - the do a good job of augmenting good paper charts, but never rely on them by them selves.
Note that with the 76S you are paying for three tings: 1) more flash memor 2) a barometic altimiter, 3) a magnetic compas. Here are some notes regarding each:
The flash memory holds a LOT of map information, way points and tracks. You probably really don't need the ammount of memory in the 76S.
I've never used the barometric altimeter - it must be calibrated and this is a pain. Do you really need it?
The magnetic compas is the relativly usefull and seemed to always be accurate enough. However, it is no substitute for a god hand held compas or a ships compass.
That idea is so obvious as to be painfull. It isn't novel or original at all. If you really have patents on this then the patent office was smoking crack that day. I read about this being done YEARS ago. Didn't you do some research into prior art? Remeber, computing existed LONG before Google. Go look in the library - perhapse look through old ACM Journal - DO SOME HOMEWORK then go work on something really novel.
Just becuase you can do it, doesn't mean you should get a patent on it.
We did it 3 years ago at AMD
on
Legacy-Free PCs
·
· Score: 2, Informative
AMD shipped (yes shipped) the worlds very first legac free PC. It has no ISA bus. It has no PS2 keyboard or mouse connectors, it had no serial ports, it had no floppy disk, it had no paralell port. It was cool. It was new. AMD did it. My team did it.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/amd3deasnowc.html
We did it before Compaq.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-516379.html?legacy= zd nn
We did it before Dell
We did it before anyone.
It was a flop.
People still want floppy disks, paralell ports, and serial ports.
By their logic, if I get up to go pee when a comercial comes on then I'm steeling. If I simply manually click and close every freaking popup, then I'm stealing (gee I didn't look at them).
Ok, that's just wacked. Yes, P4 and AthlonXP CPU's are RISC like in their core and use many RISC like tecniques in their micro architecture. But they are not RISC processors that somehow manage to execute X86-32 instructions - they are carefully designed specifically to run X86-32 code - period.
However, the statement that "The only reason they aren't fully RISC for real is because Microsoft wouldn't allow it" is simply wacked. These systems are X86-32 simply beucase that's what they need to be to run the tons and tons of available software.
Don't forget that NT 4.0 ran on other processors besides X86-32 but RISC lost the CPU wars.
RISC lost becuase they couldn't figure out how to make 10's of millions of fast CHEAP processors - AMD and Intel figured out how to do that. Fast, cheap, compatible == winner.
See, thats the problem - you want to figure out how to make $100 per subscriber. If a 'big company' wanted $100 per broad band link, slashdotters would be screaming for their heads.
Broad band needs to be priced in the $25 per month range to make it really take off fast.
Avery Ranch in Ausitn Texas is a 4500 home master planned "community". I'm building there. All homes have fibre. Service is from Clearworks. I'll get a 10MB ethernet drop, plain-ole-telephone, vide entertainment, and security monitorying for about $150/mo. Not bad.
I can upgrade to a fast-ethernet link for another $100/month. As far as I know, there are no restrictions on the kind of servers I can run on the net. This is unlike TimeWarner which has all kinds of restrictions.
This is fabulous work and points out the flawed approach of expedient development of crypto based products in a corporate environment.
Good crypto can only be developed in the open where it is subject to formal peer review and detailed scrutiny.
One of these days, this problem will solve itself when shareholders regject propriatary approaches becuase they don't work, are borken and don't make any money.
Shareholders need to be educated that the only way to make money of cryptographicaly protected products or information is the open way.
The problem with Indrema is that they aren't doing anything unique. The are putting PC components in a nifty box. Anybody can do this. Ok, so they are putting linux on it. Thats cool, but there isn't anything unique about that either.
If they get it built, I'm sure the Linux hacker (is that bad word) will buy them, but with out a distribution channel they have no way of competing with XBoX and PS2.
Don't forget that the XBoX and PS2 hardware will be and is heavily subsidized. E.g. its the Razor/Razorblade model. Sell the HW cheap, make money off the games. If a consumer has to pay $400 - $500 for an Indrema box then why buy an Indrema box instead of a PS/2 or XBoX?
E.G. Whats the business model? How do people make money working with Indrema? If there is no answer to this, or the answer is cruddy, then Indrema is destined for listing on fuckedcompany.com
The simple answer is no. Digital TV over cable and satelite is encrypted. Even if you had a digital TV "tuner card" Time Warner isn't going to tell you give you the conditional access keys which are encoded into the digital set top box you normall get from them.
What you CAN do is piple the analog NTSC video from a DSTB into a TV card in your PC. This still kind of sucks becuase you cant do chanel tuning with your PC.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been a software development manager for a long time and I've hired a lot of people. Fundamental development skills are essential. This includes knowledge of data structures, algorithms, C/C++ and another 'major' language (c/C++ is a must have), a basic understanding of micro processor archithecture (this means some ability to debug in assembly, at least a little), good written and verbal communication skills (e.g. can you write a decent bug report?, can you lead a decent code walkthrough?). Funcatinal knowledge of operating system fundamentals such as memory management, scheduling, I/O (Syncronous, async), and networked I/O (TCP/IP) are also important. Again, I don't expect folks to be able to write a kernel, but they do need to at least be able to use more than one thread to do I/O or handle UI while doing something else, or open a socket and do a little client/server work. Note that economics isn' bad, but it should be micro, not macro. Even entry level devs need to have some inkling of business trade offs.
So, let me see if I can rephrase your request:
Would you please develop some art work for me? Of course, i can't pay you very much. But! It would really help me out and my project is so cool that it will give you exposure to people that may just be willing to pay you more than me. Oh yea, I'll be sure to be dilligent about promoting you at least as much as I'm promoting my own spiffy project (for which I need your help). So, will you spend some of your time to help me?
Both are generaly accpted as correct. The use of "dead" is more modern and a natural simplification of the term. However, the use of the term 'ded' is common in navigation texts such as Bowditch's American Practical Navigator (quoted in Straight Dope's article).
E.g. neither is more correct than the other though I general find that people who are versed in the art of navigation often use the term 'ded'.
Also note the assertion by the Straight Dop questionier that "dead reckoning refers to a primitive form of aircraft navigation' is quite wrong. Ded or dead reckoning isn't primitive at all but a highly refined skill of marine piloting - anyone who navigates coastal water and can't handle basic ded reckoning is an idiot. I'm not a pilot so I can't comment on the techniques use for navigating aircraft. Though I would suspect that an accomplished pilot should be able to use charts and a compas to figure out how to get home if his instruments fail.
mmm..... lots of satilites are good. WAAS can keep accruacy high even without a relativly high number of satilites.
I have a Garmin GPS Map 76S. I've used it to navigate cross from Biscayne Bay FL to Bimini Bahamas and surrounds. A GPS with WAAS is dead nuts accurate. I took marks on my way out and navigated my way back too them on the way back. In every instance, the 76S was spot on. All my marks were verifiable by simple ded reckoning.
:)
I've also used in the colorado mountains and in Puget Sound. Accurate in all cases. By accurate I mean that all marks and the electronic maps matched up with paper maps using simple ded reckoning or orienteering techniques.
Other notes:
The 76S will run about 8 hours reliable on a set of AA batteries - be sure to keep one new set of batteries in reserve for emergencies. It will run only 4 to 6 hours on rechargable batteries.
The unit does float
The on-screen mapping function is usefull, but you must scroll frequently. Be sure to take paper charts/maps with you.
The UI is easy and relativly intuitive to use. I found no mamor problems.
The tide table feature is really usefull! It always matched the navigation softare I use on my laptop.
The unit works well with the various laptop based navigation and mapping software I've used including The Captain and Microsoft Mappoint.
The Garmin downloadable maps work well and are worth the cost, but don't expect a lot of detail for the Marine (Blue Chart) maps - the do a good job of augmenting good paper charts, but never rely on them by them selves.
Note that with the 76S you are paying for three tings: 1) more flash memor 2) a barometic altimiter, 3) a magnetic compas. Here are some notes regarding each:
The flash memory holds a LOT of map information, way points and tracks. You probably really don't need the ammount of memory in the 76S.
I've never used the barometric altimeter - it must be calibrated and this is a pain. Do you really need it?
The magnetic compas is the relativly usefull and seemed to always be accurate enough. However, it is no substitute for a god hand held compas or a ships compass.
All in all, I've been very happy with my Garmin.
That idea is so obvious as to be painfull. It isn't novel or original at all. If you really have patents on this then the patent office was smoking crack that day. I read about this being done YEARS ago. Didn't you do some research into prior art? Remeber, computing existed LONG before Google. Go look in the library - perhapse look through old ACM Journal - DO SOME HOMEWORK then go work on something really novel.
Just becuase you can do it, doesn't mean you should get a patent on it.
AMD shipped (yes shipped) the worlds very first legac free PC. It has no ISA bus. It has no PS2 keyboard or mouse connectors, it had no serial ports, it had no floppy disk, it had no paralell port. It was cool. It was new. AMD did it. My team did it.
= zd nn
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/amd3deasnowc.html
We did it before Compaq.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-516379.html?legacy
We did it before Dell
We did it before anyone.
It was a flop.
People still want floppy disks, paralell ports, and serial ports.
At least the ISA bus is dead.
By their logic, if I get up to go pee when a comercial comes on then I'm steeling. If I simply manually click and close every freaking popup, then I'm stealing (gee I didn't look at them).
Geez xtronic, so just HOW do you identify SPAM in the first place??? How about Bayesian filters.....
Ok, that's just wacked. Yes, P4 and AthlonXP CPU's are RISC like in their core and use many RISC like tecniques in their micro architecture. But they are not RISC processors that somehow manage to execute X86-32 instructions - they are carefully designed specifically to run X86-32 code - period.
However, the statement that "The only reason they aren't fully RISC for real is because Microsoft wouldn't allow it" is simply wacked. These systems are X86-32 simply beucase that's what they need to be to run the tons and tons of available software.
Don't forget that NT 4.0 ran on other processors besides X86-32 but RISC lost the CPU wars.
RISC lost becuase they couldn't figure out how to make 10's of millions of fast CHEAP processors - AMD and Intel figured out how to do that. Fast, cheap, compatible == winner.
See, thats the problem - you want to figure out how to make $100 per subscriber. If a 'big company' wanted $100 per broad band link, slashdotters would be screaming for their heads.
Broad band needs to be priced in the $25 per month range to make it really take off fast.
Avery Ranch in Ausitn Texas is a 4500 home master planned "community". I'm building there. All homes have fibre. Service is from Clearworks. I'll get a 10MB ethernet drop, plain-ole-telephone, vide entertainment, and security monitorying for about $150/mo. Not bad.
I can upgrade to a fast-ethernet link for another $100/month. As far as I know, there are no restrictions on the kind of servers I can run on the net. This is unlike TimeWarner which has all kinds of restrictions.
So, let me get this straigt... people will ask me to to become "licensed" and then not pay may any more.
This is fabulous work and points out the flawed approach of expedient development of crypto based products in a corporate environment.
Good crypto can only be developed in the open where it is subject to formal peer review and detailed scrutiny.
One of these days, this problem will solve itself when shareholders regject propriatary approaches becuase they don't work, are borken and don't make any money.
Shareholders need to be educated that the only way to make money of cryptographicaly protected products or information is the open way.
RGR
What in the world makes you think its going to be $299??? It will cost more than that just to BUILD it!
The problem with Indrema is that they aren't doing anything unique. The are putting PC components in a nifty box. Anybody can do this. Ok, so they are putting linux on it. Thats cool, but there isn't anything unique about that either. If they get it built, I'm sure the Linux hacker (is that bad word) will buy them, but with out a distribution channel they have no way of competing with XBoX and PS2. Don't forget that the XBoX and PS2 hardware will be and is heavily subsidized. E.g. its the Razor/Razorblade model. Sell the HW cheap, make money off the games. If a consumer has to pay $400 - $500 for an Indrema box then why buy an Indrema box instead of a PS/2 or XBoX? E.G. Whats the business model? How do people make money working with Indrema? If there is no answer to this, or the answer is cruddy, then Indrema is destined for listing on fuckedcompany.com
The simple answer is no. Digital TV over cable and satelite is encrypted. Even if you had a digital TV "tuner card" Time Warner isn't going to tell you give you the conditional access keys which are encoded into the digital set top box you normall get from them. What you CAN do is piple the analog NTSC video from a DSTB into a TV card in your PC. This still kind of sucks becuase you cant do chanel tuning with your PC.
They don't ..... yet :)